Blue Devils enjoy rare height advantage

The Blue Devils found out how the other half lives. Almost always the smaller team on the floor this season, Wednesday night Fairhaven had a rare height advantage and put it to good use.

BILL ABRAMSON

FAIRHAVEN — The Blue Devils found out how the other half lives.

Almost always the smaller team on the floor this season, Wednesday night Fairhaven had a rare height advantage and put it to good use.

Sophomore Cam Charette and senior Jake Carvalho, both 6-for-2 forwards, were the big players and scored 29 and 19 points, respectively, to lead Fairhaven to a 65-47 win over Diman Voke. It was a career high for each of them.

"Most nights we're at a height disadvantage," Fairhaven coach Phil Harding said. "Tonight, we had a lot of fun. We found out what it was like to be the big kid."

Charette had nine of his team's 13 points in the first quarter, including a basket in close to break a 9-9 tie with 43 seconds to go in the quarter.

Diman hung tough behind Stan Kay's 10 points and trailed 18-14 with 6:25 to go in the first half when Fairhaven took control.

Dan McLaughlin buried a 3-pointer from the right corner and Charette made another inside hoop. Carvalho followed with a turnaround jumper in the lane and Charette banked home a short jumper for a 9-0 run and a 27-14 lead.

"We've got to get good shots," Harding said of his team's deliberate style. "We did a good job of that tonight, and we made a couple of threes. We had good shot selection and we're working on it."

It was 33-18 at the half as Charette, Carvalho and McLaughlin each scored six points in the second quarter. Fairhaven made 26 baskets in 55 shots (47 percent) in the game, which included 4-for-13 (31 percent) from 3-point distance.

Fairhaven built its lead to 20 (41-21) 3:10 into the third quarter on Charette's bank shot, but Diman kept chipping away, even after Kay fouled out, and, with 3:48 to play in the game, the lead was down to 52-43.

"The Diman kids did a great job fighting back," Harding said. "We were under a lot of pressure and that was a good lesson for my kids. We let them take control of the game for a couple of minutes."

Charette hit back-to-back threes to spark a 13-4 run that closed the game for Fairhaven.

Charette was 11-for-17 from the floor and Carvalho shot 8-for-12.

WHAT IT MEANS: Fairhaven improved to 4-6, 2-6 in the South Coast Conference. Diman fell to 1-11 but only 1-3 in the Mayflower League Large Division.

COACH HARDING: "The key for us is we played well in spurts, but that still is not consistently enough. We're searching for our best game and we believe it's still in front of us."

FAIRHAVEN STATS: McLaughlin had a pair of treys and eight points, but Charette and Carvalho accounted for more points than Diman (48-47). €» Carvalho was scoreless in the first quarter, but scored 6-7-6 the next three quarters.

DIMAN STATS: Kay fouled out with 12 points and Matt Feliz fouled out with eight points. The top scorer for the Bengals was Bryce Cote. He had no points in the first half, but finished with 14, leading the Diman second-half resurgence.

NOTES: Fairhaven's flirtation with its taller status will be forgotten Monday when league-leading Case comes to town. Case features a 6-7, 6-5, 6-3 frontcourt.